Epoman,I am new in your site. I just wan to be sure, are those DaVita pictures real? Were you there? And thank you for the site.ArmyRN
Well, in my home country, we have the sad situation that the nephrologists still have the say on who goes on and who doesn't. My dad had kidney failure at 89. Don't let us think age now. Let me explain about my dad. He was born in 1906. At the age of 12, he became a pupil teacher. He then became a full-fledged teacher and in his twenties, the principal of an elementary school. He took his retirement early (at 60) and went to the seminary for a year and then became an ordained minister in the Moravian church (like Methodist). He went to the island of Antigua and served for 10 years, then returned to Barbados and served for another 9 years. He was then 75 years old. On retirement, he took up livestock farming and had a farm of about 200 pigs. He still preached from time to time, did his own business in town, walked about the village. We had to stop him from driving himself. He went through colon cancer at the age of 87 and came through it like a trooper! At 88 he got a bit slower, and started to admit that he was elderly. He never thought of himself as an old man before, refusing to join any senior citizen or retired teacher groups! He was diagnosed with kidney failure, and because of a number (89) the nephrologists refused him dialysis. We even offered to buy a machine so they could dialyse him. No deal. Our family physician was even upset. My father still had so much to say to our nation. He was such a larger than life person. The nephrologist did not know him, so he just saw an age. I wish my country thought as the US does, only not with that cost(!!)A family friend in Barbados (70s) and one in England (80s), were both taken off dialysis and sent home to die. That is the work of 'death squads"!Sorry for this long spiel, but maybe you understand.....
Still enjoying Epo's posts years later hilarious and accurate! I hate when these huge companies making hundreds of millions off us short change us to maximize profits, i understand the need to remain profitable but do not endanger us to squeeze out a few extra million.